Other ABC News Sites

Listen live

Champions League: Snow forces end to Galatasaray v Juventus clash

Updated
Wed 11 Dec 2013, 9:23 AM AEDT

Photo

Semih Kaya of Galatasaray (left) and Fernando Llorente of Juventus (right) collide during their Champions League soccer match in Istanbul.. The match has been postponed due adverse weather conditions and the state of the pitch.

Reuters: Phil Noble

Heavy snowfall in Istanbul forced the abandonment of the Galatasaray v Juventus Champions League Group B clash on Tuesday, competition organisers UEFA announced.

The match was halted shortly after the half-hour mark, with the scoreline 0-0, as increasingly heavy snowfall made playing conditions nearly impossible.

The referee called the players off the pitch as efforts were made to clear the snow.

However after a 25-minute delay, UEFA announced the match had been abandoned.

Under competition regulations the remaining match time must either be played on Wednesday, or on another date set by UEFA. The match clock stopped at 31 minutes.

The remaining 59 minutes of the match will resume on Wednesday, with UEFA saying in a short statement on Twitter: "The @GalatasaraySK v @juventusfc match will resume at 13.00 CET tomorrow."

Juventus need a point from their final game in the group to secure their ticket to the last 16 knockout phase along with leaders Real Madrid.

Galatasaray require a win to pip Juventus to second place.

Bizarrely, it is the third time a match between the sides has had to be interrupted.

In 1998, when Italy refused to extradite the Kurdish separatist leader Abdullah Ocalan to Turkey, a meeting of the clubs was delayed for a week, with Galatasaray eventually being held to a 1-1 draw in Istanbul.

In 2003, following terror attacks in Istanbul, Galatasaray hosted Juventus a week later than planned and won 2-0 in their group clash thanks to a brace from Hakan Sukur.